To:OLGA VINOGRADOVA[1]

To Beggar from Lenin

Written:Written April 8, 1905Published:First published in 1925.

      Sent from Geneva to Odessa.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1974,

      Moscow,Volume 34,

      pages310-311.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:D. MorosPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

DearComrade,

Ihave read with interest your
letter[2](No. 6) about the primary
nucleus of the organisation among handicraft workers. At the factories this
nucleus should be represented by the factory committee, but what about the
handicraft industries? You stand for trade union circles, but what about your
opponents—? I didn’t quite grasp what they stand for. Neither do I
know, unfortunately, what these old trade union “councils”
were. When did they exist? How were they formed? How did they combine Social-Democratic and trade union work?

Notbeing familiar with the practical aspect of this practical question, I
hesitate to express an opinionas yet. Further letters may tell me
more—then we shall see. One must study experience and be careful in
changing things, that is true. But it’s not quite clear to me what Economism has
to do with it. Don’t the factory committees, too, mainly discuss factory
interests (which are also trade union interests)? Yet no one has objected to the
factory committee being the primary nucleus of theSocial-Democraticorganisation. The important thing is living conditions, conditions of assembly,
conditions under which people meet, conditions of joint work, because the
primary nucleus should meet frequently and regularly and function in a
particularly lively fashion. Finally, is a single type of organisation
obligatory here? Would not a variety of types be better for adaptation to
various conditions and for acquiring richer experience?

Thanksfor the letters. Keep on writing, for it is not often
we have news about theday-to-day(the most interesting)
aspect of the work.

[1]Vinogradova,Olga(1881–1913)—joined the revolutionary movement
in 1901. In 1903 carried on propaganda and agitation in Nizhni-Novgorod. In
1903–04—a member of the Bolshevik group in Berlin. In the spring of 1905
worked in the Odessa organisation. Was a correspondent of the newspapersVperyodandProletary. In 1905–07 worked in
St. Petersburg, was a member of the agitators’ collegium under the
St. Petersburg Committee. Afterwards worked in Saratov.

[2]Thisletter was a reply to that of Olga Vinogradova dated February 18,
1905, from Odessa, in which she wrote to Lenin: “In your letter to Comrade
T. you mention my promise to write about Nizhni-Novgorod.”